PM Modi's Bengaluru visit: BJP plans massive show

The ruling BJP hopes to mobilise at least three lakh people when Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the 108-foot statue of Bengaluru founder Kempegowda near the city’s airport on November 11.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai chaired a video conference with Modi to discuss the events lined up on November 11.

Modi will flag off south India’s first Vande Bharat Express train that will run between Chennai and Mysuru via Bengaluru. He will also inaugurate the second terminal of the Kempegowda International Airport built at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore to handle an additional 2.5 crore passengers.

The inauguration of Kempegowda’s State of Prosperity will be followed by a public address attended by three lakh people from 16 districts where Vokkaligas are in sizable numbers.

Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan, who is the vice-chairperson of the Kempegowda Heritage Area Development Authority, said the bronze and steel statue has cost Rs 64 crore. Landscaping near the statue, for which soil from all over the state will be brought, would be ready in six months and cost Rs 20 crore.

“We are planning to develop a 3D virtual reality park on the Kempegowda Airport premises that would provide a brief history of Bengaluru and its founder,” Narayan told DH. The minister also said the government has lined up several projects such as developing a Kempegowda tourism circuit connecting 46 important places linked to the 16th century chieftain.

Narayan said detailed project reports on the 46 locations are being finalised. “The tourism department has released funds to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for redevelopment of the Ranganathaswamy temple at Magadi,” he said.

Noted sculptor Ram Sutar, the designer of the Statue of Prosperity (he also did the Statue of Unity) is involved with another Kempegowda statue that would be installed in Vidhana Soudha. “The Soudha statue would be installed within the next two months,” Narayan said.

“PM Modi did not stop at building the Statue of Unity, but continued to give one programme after the other. We want to emulate that and create a massive campaign around Kempegowda,” Narayan said.